[PRP] Pre-Grad (Barth+Calder+Christof+Grimhold+Zar)

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth was nervous.

He did not feel as though all of his affairs were in order. He would have liked time for an entire presentation. With charts, and pitches, and maybe poetry.

He needed to talk to everyone in regards to some more...general topics, and then each of them individually for the more private ones. Picking the place had been difficult enough. Not a restaurant. He didn't want the conversation to be public. The crypts were a tempting option. He wasn't sure if his room was formal enough, and if things went badly, there were several projects he preferred undestroyed. Anyone could walk in on the NAP room.

In the end, he'd decided on just setting an entire weekend aside for the damn thing. He had informed each of his friends that they should be packed for four days, and would be traveling Thursday evening. After dusk was always more comfortable for Grimhold, and he was sure they could find relative seclusion outside of town on the foggy, rolling hillsides of Lake Eerie. The Mudds (his mother's family) owned a patch of land and several cabins, and Barth had requested use of the area.

He gave Calder free rein grocery purchases, with notes for some dietary preferences: Zar, of course, liked his dishes alive and still whole. Grimhold was garlic-intolerant. Christof was not picky about taste, so long as it was sustaining and could fit through a straw.

Barth waited for them outside Amity's gate. The whole sky was orange, and street lanterns had begun to glow in the dimming light. Grimhold's carriage was parked alongside the curb. It was a handsome black, with gold filagree, and although it did have a set of reins, they were attached to the carriage itself. Nothing in particular seemed to be pulling it.

Barth's luggage had already been put in the overhead compartment.

"Not taking the Doom Buggy, Master Barth?" Grimhold asked.

Barth waved a claw dismissively. That, too, needed addressing. Along with the House hunting...it all needed addressing.  

[Baneful]

Zar arrived at the gates as instructed and was not entirely sure what to expect. He hadn't been outside the school grounds much if at all in recent years, and though he wouldn't admit it, it was because he was afraid. His parents had quite an extensive reach when it came to intel and clearly knew where he was almost all of the time. His safety seemed to depend heavily on staying within the bounds of the school grounds, so it was with quite a lot of jangling nerves that he had made his way towards potential danger.

And all of this didn't even begin to take in whatever Barth might have had to say that was so important he had to take them all out for a weekend.

With him he had brought what amounted to all of his possessions, a single neat suitcase that he carried with his tail and though he kept a slow pace, his posture was rigid and tense. Everything about him seemed hypervigilant.

He waited by the carriage and fiddled anxiously with his cravat, not even possessing the confidence to announce his presence.

 

[Bilious]

Christof was wary. The last time they had taken a trip together it had not... ended very well. Not well at all. Still, though, it wasn't as though they were going to his house this time, and honestly he was quite curious to visit Barth's, see where the demon had grown up. He arrived at the appointed place with a pillowcase stuffed with a spare towel, some emergency tools, and one of Scruff's puppies which was busy yipping about how it didn't like being shoved in a pillow case with a lot of towels. Even so, it seemed like a good idea to bring it.

At the sight of Zar standing and waiting by the carriage, the hunchback's brows furrowed. He shuffled toward Barth with a grunt, hefting his sack down as it gave it's own pained yip.  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth was worried, and therefore preoccupied, daydreaming as he stared out into the cobbled streets on the backend of school grounds.

Grimhold, on the other hand, detected Zar and Christof immediately.

He did not smile at them, but he fastened the reigns to the seat irons, steadying the carriage with a a pat from his long, slender hand, then hopped down to the pavement. Everything about him was fluid, delicate grace.

"Good evening, sirs. Might I assist you with your luggage?"

Barth perked up, stirring out of whatever fog he had been in once Grimhold spoke.

"Ah! Glad you could make it!" Just waiting for Calder, then. "Weather looks clear. Hopefully it'll stay through Spookday."  

[Baneful]

The sound from Christof's bag grabbed Zar's attention before the Igor's presence did. Whatever it was sounded very much like prey. It was only through deference to not starting a fight before they even got anywhere that he pushed the instincts aside and turned his attention to the coach driver.

He handed over his suitcase politely and with an odd air of obedience, finding himself in the presence of wealth turning back into the meek boy who'd first arrived at Amityville, dropped off by his father's own carriage.

Checking both ways along the road - as if something was going to loom up at them - that didn't happen, that wouldn't happen, he was being ridiculous - he gave Barth a curt nod.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Calder had been eager to hear that they were all going to a cabin together, and it delighted him to no ends that he would be spending an entire weekend with most of his herd – without supervision or threat of detention – to do whatever he wanted.

He spent the time after the message humming to himself all the way to the carriage now. It was no wonder that he was late, as he could be heard before he even arrived. On his back was his pack, a leather bag that kept his horn manicure kit, his brush kit, his own clothing, along with some odds and ends. Usually he didn't even bring much and this would have been it. It wasn't like monsters to bring anything more than they could carry and if anything, there was always walking around naked.

What had caused the extra luggage was a covered cage that was, as he approached, bleating. It was also dripping a little and there was a rich fragrance of something spiced and savory.

What was in his other hands was another basket, this one filled with other foods, spices, a few jars with marinades he had made before today for the trip, and Barth's blender – for Christof's dietary needs. He also had decided to bring lots of loopy, playful strays that twisted in the shapes of animals because he thought they were cute when he saw them in the store and surely Christof would find them fun to drink out of.

With the loaded basket of food and the loaded basket of wafting demon goats inside their covered container, Calder panted as he arrived. His hair was slightly damn as he took a swim that moring as he wasn't sure there was even water nearby this cabin and knew he would need it to survive the weekend. "Hey!" He said, setting the basket and cage down and looking at all of them with a big yet out-of-breath smile. "Excited?" he said to all of them, clearly showing he was.

He looked to Grimhold and beamed. "Hello Grimhold! You look pretty today." He decided to comment, always envious of the man's grace and ability to almost float in his movements when Calder otherwise did not.

He then looked at the carriage and frowned.

He hated carriages.

 

[Bilious]

Christof eyed the others warily. He was glad Calder was coming along, but the addition of Zar set him (and his fists) on edge. To Grimhold, he gave a polite nod and grunt, letting him load his bag up with the other's things. Fidgeting, he felt a bit useless with the vampire servant. Finally, he started to climb up onto the rear of the carriage where a doorman (or extra luggage) usually were put.  

[Toshihiko Two]

"Oh, err, you know...yes- I needed the break from my studies. I hope none of you are too inconvenienced." One proposal was nerve-wracking enough. He should have staggered it. Taken care of it gradually. And maybe, given enough time, he would have been confident that each of the answers... But they had to plan...

Grimhold arranged Zar's suitcase on the top of the carriage, and fastened Christof's sack.

Calder's collection of belongings, plus the groceries, were more substantial. But Grimhold had no shortage of wiry strength. The vampire looked slightly taken aback by the compliment, but recovered with a, "Thank you, sir," before unburdening Calder of the heavier items.

"There's room in the main compartment," Barth told Christof, claws unfurling to touch Christof's shoulder. He hesitated, and drew his hand back to his chest instead.

"If you like," he amended.

He knew Calder didn't trust devices of any sort, but it was going to be (for the most part) a low-tech weekend. Barth had left Handsome with Siddie. After Barth completed the final requirements, it was just the final test.

The cabins were a good ride from town, and once they'd left the main roads Grimhold drove the carriage hard and fast, exhilarated by the encroaching night. Barth was pleasant, but still distracted, and avoidant when it came to any serious matters.

Growing closer, Grimhold followed some old wooden signs for Lake Eerie. The trees twisted into screaming faces. Bats chittered in the blustering October wind, and dried up leaves crackled over the dirt.

The cabin itself was on the main lake, boasting a dock and two stories. The wrap-around porch was dotted with rocking chairs, and the trees were thick. There were other cabins across the wide lake, but none within immediate view.

"There are four bedrooms," Barth said. "I'll be sleeping downstairs." Or on a couch, if things went badly. "We can get supper started after we're unpacked."
 

[Baneful]

Zar had stared a long time at the cages Calder had brought with him but restrained himself from investigating further. It was progress he felt. Not so long ago he would have shifted at even the scent and tried to break into the food before they even left. Even covered he knew fairly well what was in there, able to taste the creatures on the air along with the strange but delicious fluids they seemed to be steeped in. It was not enough to make him shift but was certainly enough to distract him albeit temporarily from the threat of danger.

Calder got a weak and shaky sort of smile as he greeted them but no real answer, Zar if it was even possible looked paler than usual.

Once he was seated in the main compartment, Zar leaned his horns against the side of the carriage and tried not to worry about anything. Every jolt and rattle of the road was translated through his horns to his skull and this at least provided some minor distraction as he tried to concentrate on the intensity of the jostling and derive from this what terrain they were riding over. He felt like he should be making conversation, but he had no idea what to say in the first place.

The landscape rolled past them, grand and ominous but he paid it no heed either, all he could think of was that behind any tree there could be creatures waiting for him and that out here he wasn't safe and if it came to and emergency - had no idea where they were.

Looking over the cabin his initial terror at the prospect of having to share a room with the Igor or for that matter, the over-excitable Calder was dispelled. They had places to sleep if they wanted to retreat to them. He was sure however that other worries would very quickly take the place of those removed.

He felt awkward. Excruciatingly awkward compared to the smooth operator he could have and should have been, he found himself hovering in awkward silence in the entryway, waiting for other people to choose where they would rather be before he would so much as consider unpacking. He still said absolutely nothing at all.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Moving was not a strange or scary thing for Calder. His parents migrated along the Devon territory each year and while they had their home now, that wasn't to say he hadn't lived elsewhere or lived in other places during different recognized holidays of his clan. Moving, however, had always been on hoof or, when he was just a colt, on his parents' back whenever he got too tired. It was always in direct relation to the ground or water.

The carriage always made him worried. It was small, closed in, and he felt his legs were too long for it. When he sat, he cracked the window and patted the seat for Christof, hoping he would come in at least. "Sit with me, Christof!" He called out, hoping to keep his friend near him.

When the carriage finally left the school and hit the road, Calder had been alright for a few minutes, but soon the bumping carriage and the sensation of moving quickly without moving your legs started to get to him. His stomach felt tight and yet it kept feeling as if it was moving – like he swallowed a grumpy catfish who wanted to fight the entire time.

Feeling a little more green, he leaned near the open window and by the time the carriage was at full speed, Calder's head was nearly out of the window, taking deep breathes and trying not to be sick. A few times he would look back into the cabin thinking he was alright to just sit with everyone and hopefully get everyone talking. He had been excited, but the ride was killing it for him, and soon all attempts left his throat lurching and his head back out the window to take deep breathes.

He smelled he Lake before he saw the signs, and he perked up, taking deep breathes and sniffs of the air, his horse tail flicking behind him in the cabin as he stood up a bit straighter from the sad slouching he had been doing before. "I smell the lake!" he called out into the forest hoping everyone inside the cabin heard him.

Excited once again, Calder looked at the land around him and shot up straight when he saw the first glimpse of the lake. "I SEE THE LAKE!" He called out, and then a bump in the road had him falling back into the cabin.

Getting up and sitting down, he was back to beaming, if not still pale, and back to being excited. All rivers he smelled had been linked to the same familiar scent of The Devon. The other smells had been Amityville's swamp and the surrounding rivers in the Weeping Woods. This lake had its own smell, and he was eager to dive in and explore.

Just as the carriage pulled up, Calder left the carriage with everyone else – but fell out due to his weak-feeling legs and lack of really knowing how to properly get out of a carriage. Luckily, he was back on his hooves in a second and looking around.

At the mention of the rooms, Calder frowned and looked around. "What? I thought we were all sleeping together."

He looked to all three of them, frowning. "Why aren't we all sleeping together?"

He continued to frown, and it seemed that this had not been the plan. Sad that he would not have a big slumber party, his FIRST slumber party, Calder continued to look at them.

"I don't want to sleep alone."

His eyes got a little bit darker, a little bit wider, a little bit more glossy and pleading. "Can I sleep with someone?"

OnO
 

[Bilious]

Christof had begrudgingly accepted the invitation to sit inside the carriage and, unsurprisingly, said nothing the entire ride, only occasionally giving Calder a weak pat on the back or an offer of water, not that it helped his friend's carriage-sickness any.

Suffice to say, he was relieved when they got there. It was a lovely house- sure, it was no castle, but his heart ached with the idea of sitting beside that lake with an arch-welder and Barth lounged in the grass with a set of blueprints...

He helped Grimhold with the bags, stiffening a bit at the mention of having his own room. With a grunt, he motioned toward the broom closet, trying his best to express he would be just fine there, and one didn't need to waste a whole room on an Igor.  

[Toshihiko Two]

"You don't have to clean," Barth told Christof, misinterpreting.

"And err, that is, I thought...well, you can each have your own rooms, I'd...we can discuss sleeping arrangements over dinner. Or after dinner. If you'll ah, all excuse me- Grimhold, did you bring those...yes, thank you. Above the door, please. I'll activate it."

Grimhold helped stock the refrigerator and stacked everything that didn't need to be kept cold in the cupboards. He took his own luggage, a leather satchel, to one of the upper rooms.

Barth slunk outside, fussing with a bit of paper over the door while everyone unpacked and settled.
 

[Baneful]

Zar had been intensely hoping that everyone would simply head to their respective rooms and that would be where they slept. He realized quickly it wouldn't be quite as simple as that. Including Grimhold there weren't actually enough rooms for all of them and that there was a good chance someone would have to sleep elsewhere. Christof seemed to be trying to volunteer himself for the honours before anyone else could. Calder was busy giving Zar panic attacks by bringing up who would be sleeping with him that night and threatening to derail the entire "politely sleep in separate rooms" plan.

Eventually the Incubus could take no more and taking his luggage, slunk off upstairs to unpack.

He didn't come back down for a long time.

 

[MoonKitsune]

Calder watched as everyone didn't directly address his question or even the eyes he was giving them. Pouting, he crossed his arms and watched as Zar grabbed his things and went upstairs to his own, private, one bed, one person, totally prudish, not at all nice, cold-shoulder room. Christof didn't seem to know where to go and might end up under the porch if Barth didn't watch him, and Calder distantly hoped his friend wouldn't mind company. Barth on the other hand would be on the couch, not out of kindness of giving them all a room, but because Calder felt that stairs in any way was a no go even on a cabin vacation.

As Barth fiddled with some weird papers outside, which was surprising he would be actually outside doing anything and not taking the vacation to heart and already on the couch, Calder watched Grimhold take the stuff into the kitchen.

Not knowing what else to do, Calder went to his saddle bag and started to riffle through it before he pulled out a few things. Inside, he gathered a blue ribbon to tie up his hair iinto a pony tail, then took a plaid handkerchief to cover his hair. After that, he took a frilly white apron he had just bought for the trip when going grocery shopping (thank you Barth), Calder helped Grimhold put everything in the fridge and cupboards and laid down some paper s the floor wouldn't get dirty before setting the cage down. As he was helping the vampire, he glanced over at him. "Ya know, if you get lonely tonight, just tell me. I'm a very warm monster." He said, hoping that the undead might like a friend who would keep him warm – seeing as he was undead. Maybe, unlike Christof, some undeads liked company that gave off heat.

Calder was feeling a little desperate and didn't want to wind up alone tonight.

Once Grimhold left, Calder set to work on dinner. Humming to himself, he set down a pot and skillet and then started to neatly arrange the jars he would be using and a sack of eels he had been marinating in the same liquid the goats were in. Calder probably would spray off a goat tonight and marinade it in something else so Zar wouldn't be stuck with one course all weekend. That wasn't fun. He also had other living things he hoped the demon would like.

Alone to himself, he entertained himself with what he had here. They were all in one place, far away from school, and he pretended this might be like how their life after school would be. All together, with him making supper, and everyone doing their own things. Barth and Christof working on some weird metal thingy and rustling blue papers, Zar helping out around the house and coming back from work. (Calder didn't know what job it would be, but he envisioned a suitcase just to establish that he was at work in his mind.) There would be scarlings moving about in the yard and upstairs.

The kelpie took a moment to hold his face in both hands and give a little whinny at the idea.

Calder continued to hum sweetly as he worked on dinner and finished it up, not pureeing Christof's meal this time as this course could be slurped through a straw while still whole. Though if the undead decided he didn't like it after, Calder wouldblend it up (it only was a push of a button after all).

He wondered how much Grimhold ate, or even if he liked the food Calder would make, and he worried now that he hadn't brought anything more in case of food emergencies like this. Sadly, he would just hope that the undead wasn't as finicky as Christof and, well, he could always puree two meals.

Starting the oven to bake some cupcakes, Calder set the table for all of them and then, pressing his apron down, walked back out. Barth wasn't around and neither was Zar. Frowning, Calder went to Christof. "Um…dinner is ready. Can you get Barth and…help him to his seat?" Since the man might be exhausted by now.

Calder then walked upstairs, looking around the unclaimed rooms before he saw a door closed. He tapped at this one and noticed it was for Grimhold. "Dinner is ready." He told him with a smile, again hoping he would be considering that slumber buddy offer.

Then Calder went to Zar's room and knocked before opening. Popping his head in, he looked around for the demon. "Dinner's ready. What are you doing up here?"
 

[Baneful]

Once Zar had unpacked what little he had brought with him into the room next to Grimhold's, he had sat down on the bed, burying his face into his claws. It was impossible for him to really enjoy the surroundings of the cabin or the cabin itself, there was simply too much to worry about and too much he didn't know. Change always bothered him, enough to make him hide away in his room for months back in his second year and beyond. He'd thought he was past it, but evidently he had thought wrong.

Calder got a grim look when he entered. "Nothing." he said, and obediently stood as if his hooves operated without him. He'd learned to attend dinners on time, learned that punctuality was key and all of that was coming back to him, whether he wanted it to or not.

"Am I needed somewhere?"